®REVIEWS
The Falcon Confession
John V. Norris. John Norris, $11.99 trade paper
(470p) ISBN 978-0-9967618-9-5
Debut novelist Norris tells this tale of the
Norman Conquest well enough, but its subplot of nefarious intrigue rings hollow. In
the summer of 1065, Harold Godwinson,
the Earl of Wessex, returns from months of
captivity in Normandy to England, where
his old friend, Bishop Wulfstan, must hear
his confession and see that it is recorded.
Harold, Wulfstan, the young scribe Aidan,
and Harold’s wife, Edith Swanneschals,
each face difficulties leading up to and following the battles of 1066. Harold, as
Norris writes him, is seeking to foil the
plans of Bishop Odo of Bayeaux, Duke
William of Normandy’s half-brother. To the
modern reader, Odo’s intentions to “destroy
the Islamic realms” seem extreme, but they
don’t feel out of place for a medieval clergyman. The reactions of Harold, Wulfstan,
and their circle to Odo’s plans are more like
those of contemporary people rather than
people of the Middle Ages; at a time when
war was a fact of life, Harold’s and
Wulfstan’s recoiling seems out of place.
Norris describes the battle action nicely,
but the motivations don’t fit.
The Jøssing Affair
J. L. Oakley. Fairchance, $19.99 trade paper
(540p) ISBN 978-0-9973237-0-2
In the tantalizing prologue of Oakley’s
solid thriller set in 1944 Norway, Henry
Oliver Rinnan, “a Gestapo unit unto him-
self with a maniacal lust for brutal punish-
ment” of his Norwegian countrymen,
shoots a man before dumping him in a
snowy ravine. An elderly witness to the
shooting retrieves the victim and manages
to revive him. Flash back to seven months
earlier: Tore Haugland, who has been
working with the Norwegian resistance
intelligence service and the British, was an
integral member of the Shetland Bus opera-
tion, in which Norwegian fishing boats
transported arms and agents between the
Shetland Islands and Norway. His dan-
gerous work becomes even more perilous
after he falls for Anna Fromme, the German
widow of a Norwegian who came to distrust
her before his arrest by the Nazis. After her
husband’s disappearance and presumed
death, Anna was suspected of having
betrayed him. Then someone, possibly
Anna, informs the authorities that Tore is
working for the resistance. Convinced of her
innocence, Tore resolves to unmask the
person who really betrayed him. Oakley
effectively recreates a lesser-known chapter
of WWII through well-developed charac-
ters and suspenseful situations.
The Lifeblood of Ill-Fated Women
Kevin James Breaux. CreateSpace, $13.99
trade paper (390p) ISBN 978-1-5372-6045-7
Nordic mythology comes to life in
Breaux’s meandering novel. In the midst of
an attack on the Scandinavian village of
Birka, Astrid, a warrior princess, wakes up
to find herself inexplicably in a new location
with no memory of how she got there.
When former soldier Warren and his merchant brother Hammond find Astrid near
death, they take her to their humble town
of Grømstad. A stranger in a strange land
with the life she knows relegated to history,
Astrid struggles to solve the mystery of her
missing time while fighting to defend
Grømstad from a bandit army. She also deals
with the unexpected and not entirely
wanted feelings she’s developing for
Warren. Breaux’s action sequences are visceral and immersive but the plot jumps
around before it finally gets somewhere.
When a familiar face appears with a
shocking revelation, Astrid finds herself
caught in the middle of a war between old
Nordic gods and powerful demons.
However, once the primary plot thread is
revealed, it’s resolved before it truly gets off
the ground. Breaux (One Smoking Hot Fairy
Tail) has written an enjoyable story filled
with highly entertaining action and characters, though one that leaves the reader
wondering, “What’s the point?”
Loving a Wild Stranger
Kelli A. Wilkins. Kelli A. Wilkins, $2.99 e-book
(295p) ASIN B01N6M551H
Wilkins (Trust with Hearts) has created a
wonderfully sweet romance (first published
in 2014 as Wilderness Bride) set in a small
town in the Michigan Territory in 1823.
Kathleen Stanton, on the run from her past
with nowhere to go, ends up in the town of
Ranford. After encountering a handsome
stranger and overhearing his conversation,
she makes the desperate decision to claim
to be his mail-order bride. Luther Dubois
sent off for a wife a year prior, since no
woman in Ranford wanted to marry a man
who was part Ojibwa, and is shocked when
Kathleen claims to be his. On Luther’s
homestead, Kathleen struggles with her
new life, so very different than the one she
had in New York, while Luther’s quiet
strength belies his troubled past. Kathleen’s
lack of trust in men, thanks to her ex-fiancé,
and Luther’s discomfort with his heritage
make it hard for them to love each other;
meanwhile, there’s growing danger to them
both from outside forces. The fantastic ten-
sion between the two characters as they
grapple with their sudden newlywed status
and the awkwardness that comes with mar-
rying a perfect stranger keeps this story
emotional and realistic as they fall in love.
The story flows nicely and does not rush the
romance. A few too many story lines crowd
the novel, but Wilkins keeps readers inter-
ested with strong, complex characters. Fans
of pioneer romances will enjoy this one
Moriarty Meets His Match:
A Professor and Mrs. Moriarty
Mystery
Anna Castle. Anna Castle, $15.95 trade paper
(344p) ISBN 978-1-945382-03-1
In this witty series launch set in Victorian
London from Castle (the Francis Bacon mysteries), Prof. James Moriarty, Sherlock
Holmes’s nemesis, is no criminal mastermind. Rather, he’s an assistant examiner at
the Patent Office, with a firm and fierce
sense of justice. At the vast and hugely
popular International Inventions
Exhibition, Moriarty is on hand to unmask
the anomalies in a newly designed steam
engine. When the engine explodes, killing
a man, Moriarty realizes that he must find
out who tampered with the device or risk
being blamed for the death. Shortly before
this tragedy, Moriarty meets a beautiful
American widow, Angelina Gould, who has
come to London, ostensibly for the 1885
social season. As the mutual attraction
between Moriarty and Angelina blossoms,
the cunning lady introduces the professor
to both love and larceny. As the subtitle
suggests, the pair eventually wed. Readers
will look forward to the couple’s further
adventures.
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